Why a broad?
Not quite a lady, and definitely not a dame, I left the United States a broad- a woman out in the world, daring to take charge of her situation. This blog serves to document my experiences and archive a "once in a lifetime" opportunity. From California to Copenhagen.

The world is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page.

- Saint Augustine

Friday, August 12, 2011

Gluten Free Gluttony

Chocolate is the answer. Who cares what the question is. ~Author Unknown

Holy Garbanzo beans, Batman, a chocolate cake without flour? How did she do it this time!

So yesterday "Jeg er laekkersulten" (I had a sweet-tooth) and wanted to bake.

I found a recipe for (stay with me here) a garbanzo bean flour-less chocolate cake, that is high in protein but completely dairy and gluten free. Stop drooling already. (If you are drooling from that description there is something wrong with your salivary glands)

But to my delightful surprise it turned out phenomenally! It was by far the cheapest, easiest and universally pleasing cake I've tried- a little dry (might add some butter next time) but then with a cream cheese frosting (or even whipped cream) it was awesome.

The recipe is here:

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

1 (19 ounce) can garbanzo beans, rinsed and drained

4 eggs

3/4 cup white sugar

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

Directions

Place the chocolate chips into a microwave-safe bowl. Cook in the microwave for about 2 minutes, stirring every 20 seconds after the first minute, until chocolate is melted and smooth. If you have a powerful microwave, reduce the power to 50 percent.

Combine the beans and eggs in the bowl of a food processor. Process until smooth. Add the sugar and the baking powder, and pulse to blend. Pour in the melted chocolate and blend until smooth, scraping down the corners to make sure chocolate is completely mixed. Transfer the batter to the prepared cake pan.

Bake for 40 minutes in the preheated oven, or until a knife inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Cool in the pan on a wire rack for 10 to 15 minutes before inverting onto a serving plate.

My differences:

Fun fact, in Denmark they don't sell chocolate chips. You have to buy chocolate bars and break then up. I used two bars of dark chocolate and 1 bar milk.

Also- they weight their food. Weird right? But I weighted out 96 grams of sugar all right, and eyeballed the baking powder amount and it still turned out great :)

I also found it was better when chilled in the freezer instead of hot out of the oven, like a torte.

Also because I used garbanzo beans instead of crazy expensive gluten free flour so it came out to about 20 kroner or $4 for the entire cake.

Gluten free college girls beware of this delicious confection. Even my danish pastry loving danish flatmates gave me the thumbs up on this one.

As it came out of the oven, I was so excited that it baked all the way through and didn't go flat or run over the pan or get gray or develop a tumor (it's been known to happen) that I ran to go get my camera. Asger, my flatmate, asks "Is this your first cake or something?" It just goes to show you how rarely something gluten free actually turns out.

4 comments:

My mom makes the most delicious flour-less choco cake of all time with chestnut cream, which I bet would be easier to find in Europe, so go for it! I've also had it with mashed potatoes (sounds gross but it's good!)